Though your middle school and high school US History students may have a vague understanding of who founded America, they’ve likely let go of the intimate knowledge of when, how, and why. Reintroducing the American Colonies will help to reinforce skills and review knowledge they learned earlier in the year. By using a hands–on approach, including response group activities, centers, and even an archaeological dig, students review information about basic US History in a fun context.
Your middle school and high school US History students will appreciate a change of pace when you blanket their lesson plans with fun and engaging reviews, like centers activities and archaeological digs. Getting students moving, motivated, and intrigued will help to encourage deeper learning and will also help them to retain more knowledge for test time and end-of-year review!
Fun Fact! What was the first successful colony? Hop over to Scholastic for the answer.
If your students enjoy practical applications of learning, adding the American Colonial Settlement Centers Activity or Archaeological Dig into your lesson plans is sure to spark an interest. Students have the opportunity to engage in group centers to collect information, create a human timeline, dig an archaeological dig site, review contextual information, play a matching game, and prepare a study guide for test time.
Also, middle school and high school students can engage in US History review with Comparing the American Colonies – Response Group or Centers Activity. Students will work cooperatively to gather information on education, government, business and trade, community life, geography, settlement, and more, in each colony, and then perform different comparison/contrast engagements. Presenting them with this different approach to learning about the Colonies will surely engage them in a way that will help them retain similarities and differences among the colonies.
By presenting your middle and high school students with these alternative learning activities, they’re less likely to be bored with repetitive content. Instead, they’ll embrace the hands-on learning approach, engage with classmates, develop cooperative learning skills, and work together to review information in a fun and informative way! Using these interactive activities will surely enhance the learning experience in your US History classroom year after year.
Happy Teaching!
